SRH vs RR, September 27, Dubai International Stadium
The SRH camp looks a happy bunch and they are jumping and hollering all over the place in the stands. Shows how much this victory means to them, A young fan, tight-lipped, waves the Orange flag with an air of relief. SRH have just shown the way to chase on this ground. Yesterday,
MI faltered chasing a similar total after a rollicking powerplay and today SRH, not just held their nerve, but approached this with an aggressive mindset ably helped by one of the best T20 openers in the world, Jason Roy.
The English opener smacked a 42-ball 60 at the top and all they needed post that brilliant innings was a touch of calmness which the skipper provided with a 41-ball 51 to guide his side home with 9 balls to spare.
There was a slight moment of panic after SRH lost 2 quick wickets in the middle overs, but the 21 year-old Abhishek Sharma showed great maturity to stitch a near 50-run stand with Williamson.
Sanju Samson | RR captain
Speaking about the defeat, the swashbuckling batsman said,”I think it was a decent score. The wicket was a bit sticky, they were bowling well. We could have got 10-20 runs more. On a sticky wicket once you get a start you need to keep on going. I wanted to keep going after the powerplay but we kept losing wickets, so I wanted to stick on and have a partnership.
\We wanted to put on a respectable total to fight back. But we got what we had targetted after the timeout. We need to work on bowling and batting. We need to be at our best every ball and execute well. We needed to lift our standards.”
The top 3 scores by Sanju Samson this season have all been in a losing cause:
119 v Punjab Kings
82 today v Sunrisers Hyderabad
70* v Delhi Capitals
Jason Roy | Player of the Match
For his impressive knock of 60 out of 42 balls, which set up the platform for SRH’s win, Roy was awarded as the “Player of the Match”. He spoke in the post-match presentation, “Makes me extremely happy. Really thankful and grateful for Sunrisers for the opportunity. I’m extremely happy and even more so because we got over the line.
He (Saha) was instrumental in that partnership, allowed me to relax a little bit, and really happy with that. We obviously had a tough tournament, but to come out and play like that with a smile on the face, we gotta keep our feet grounded and keep doing the right things.”
It’s never easy to walk the talk in this format given the high-octane competitive levels involved in all departments of the game. Surely, Roy will be sending a message to his mate in Yorkshire tonight which might read “Worry not, Jonny I got this”. It hasn’t been an ideal season for SRH with lots of issues on and off the field, but these little things will definitely help.
The team in Pink though have now lost two in a row after that unbelievable heist against Punjab last week. With the top two spots all but sealed, the race is heating up for the third and fourth spots and four teams which are well and truly in contetion for the playoffs are gonna battle it out in the double-header day tomorrow.
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